


box of cats, barn of crows

by orbitalknight



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cats, Implied Relationships, Multi, Polyamory, Pre-Canon, broke: bedsharing woke: BARNsharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 10:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19332475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orbitalknight/pseuds/orbitalknight
Summary: New arrivals on the Sawatari farm lead to a less-than-peaceful morning.





	box of cats, barn of crows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gnostechnician](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnostechnician/gifts).



Kazumi Sawatari always liked the early mornings.

He wasn’t a morning person, not exactly, but there was something worth getting up for about the sunrises in the way they colored the dirt of the Sawatari Farm a more golden hue. It wasn’t like he had to, but there was serenity in the act of working alone before everyone else started their early hours. There was nothing but him and the sky and the dirt, the sound of his own breathing and sometimes the wind. In those golden moments, it was easier to forget the dryness of the soil and the dark promise of smaller vegetables, shriveled fruits. When the sun was just over the horizon with the first of the day's dirt under his fingernails, Kazumi could find something like hope in a newly budded leaf.

 As much as Kazumi liked the company of his three closest friends/employees/idiots, occasionally mornings offered an escape from their general rowdiness. But there was something unmistakably loud coming from one of the barns when had started his rounds this morning, so he’d tabled the rest of his routine to investigate. The Sawatari Farm wasn’t the only one being affected by poor harvests, and livestock thieves weren’t out of the question. Outside the loud barn in question, Kazumi took a moment to ponder if he should pick up a pitchfork or a shovel just in case there really was trouble. He decided against it on the grounds that petty criminals weren’t worth denting his good tools. Kazumi was fairly certain his fists would do just fine, anyway.

 The doors to the barn in question were unchained, even more noise leaking through them as Kazumi got closer. A few steps more and he recognized the sound as voices. Very familiar voices. Well, at least nobody was trying to steal anything.

“Don’tcha think it’s cute how they line up like that? Polite ‘lil guys.” The unmistakable and slightly lilting voice of Shokichi Mihara is the first to chime in with particular clarity.

 “You don’t think someone’s gonna think they’re rats with those skinny tails, right?” The inquiry comes in the voice of Shuya Aikawa, always a little more concerned.

 “Nah. They got round heads.” And rounding out the set of three is Masaru Ooyama, exactly as Kazumi would have figured.

The rusty hinges of the barn door creak as Kazumi pushes one open. It’s one of the emptier buildings on the farm, a victim of their downsizing. The smell of the dirt and hay is the same as ever, though. Three sets of eyes widen and fix themselves on him as he enters. Masaru’s hair is, as usual, sticking directly upward as if someone had just rubbed his head with a balloon, which only makes him look more surprised. Shokichi seems to instinctively flash a peace sign. Shuya scratches at his perpetually stubbly beard.

 “Hey,” Kazumi says, ‘What the hell are you doing?”

Shokichi, Shuya, and Masaru, all squatting on the barn floor, exchange a look. Then, with silently perfect timing, all three of them point to something on that Kazumi can’t quite see from where he’s standing.

Kazumi shuffles through the dirt and hay to stand behind the three of them, planting one hand on Masaru’s shoulder and the other on Shuya’s so he can lean over to see what they’re looking at. On the ground, in a little nest of hay, are four kittens, squirming and squeaking. They’re especially young kittens, Kazumi thinks, judging by their still closed eyes and more-fuzzy-than-furry coats. He doesn’t have a lot longer to consider it, though. He can feel the weight of the expectations in his three friend’s gazes.

“How long have they been here?” He asks, finally.

“Found ‘em last night,” Masaru says, “We didn’t see the mom around so we thought we’d check on ‘em in the morning.”

“You sure you three weren’t so loud you scared her off?” Kazumi scrutinizes the kittens further. Their coats aren’t dirty enough to have been left alone all night. He goes way back with the Sawatari Farm barn cat, anyway. She’s a standoffish and fluffy gal, but it’s not out of the ordinary for her to stare Kazumi down while he works in the mornings. It’s a quiet company, at least. His gaze shifts to the rafters and around the hayloft looking for a pair of attentive yellow eyes, but doesn’t spot them.

“Huh? We weren’t that loud,” Shuya exchanges looks with Shokichi and Masaru, who bob their heads in agreement.

The movement displaces Kazumi’s grip on their shoulders, but he plays it off by taking a skipping step backward and tucking his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “I could hear you halfway across the farm.”

A pause. “Really?” Shokichi chirps.

“Yeah, really.”

A collective “huh” comes from the three.

“Alright,” Kazumi says, “Shokichi, grab the bag of flour from the kitchen. Masaru, you know where we keep the extra produce crates? Pick out one with three sides. Shuya, go dig around the winter storage until you find a blanket or two you like.”

Masaru is the first one to get to his feet. “Alright! That’s our Boss.”

“What’re you gonna do in the meantime?” Shokichi bounces up and brushes himself off, then fixes Kazumi with a quizzical look.

“I’ll stay here,” Kazumi says, "But hurry up, 'cause I have shit to do today."

Shuya, Shokichi, and Masaru each give their own waves or salutes of affirmation. Kazumi has noticed how much the three of them seem to like delegated tasks, despite their friendship. They're all just competitive enough that he hopes they'll be efficient with their tasks. In the meantime, he settles down onto the floor, legs crossed at the ankles, leaning against one of the barn's roof supports. The kittens shuffle next to him, bumper-car tails almost unbearably fuzzy. The barn has started to warm from the chill of the morning. Kazumi cracks his neck and shifts a little further back. He lets his eyes close for what he promises will only be a minute.

So he's sure it can't have been more than a minute when something bumps itself with intention against his arm. Cracking one eye open like a cartoon monster, Kazumi finds his friend the barn cat, who greets his gaze with an inquisitive "mmmmmmrrr?" before walking across only the most sensitive parts of his legs to her kittens. She sniffs each of them, then curls around them so the four kittens can clumsily nurse. She grooms them while they take their morning meal, but pauses midway to fix Kazumi with a stare.

He gives the cat a thumbs up.

Kazumi decides to leave the barn cat to her baby business and stands up with as much care as he can manage. He makes a relatively quiet exit from the barn and pushes the doors mostly shut, careful not to chain them into place. He figures his boys must have locked up after finding the kittens the night before and accidentally shut the mom out. It's sweet, though, that small token of habit. Outside the barn, the sun has crept over the horizon and is sneaking its way further into the sky.

Kazumi wonders what's taking the three of them such a long time.

Masaru is the first to arrive back at the barn, half out of breath, hefting an apple crate with the Sawatari farm name carved into one of the wooden slats. It's a nice crate save for the dust that tumbles into the sunlight every time Masaru shifts his grip on it. On the open side, the bottommost of the three wooden slats remains. It’s perfect, Kazumi thinks, for kittens likely to tumble out.

Masaru gestures vaguely at the mostly closed door and the fact that Kazumi is outside the barn. "Didn't you say you were gonna stay there?"

Kazumi shrugs. "Mom's busy."

Masaru's eyebrows reach for his hairline. "Real shit?"

Kazumi nods to the affirmative.

Masaru moves as if he's going to fold his arms, but manages to smack himself with the crate he's still holding, dropping it on impact. Luckily, it lands on a corner and rolls to a flat side instead of cracking. Masaru is a little less undamaged, rubbing at the place on his shoulder that will no doubt end up bruised. He nearly fumbles picking up the crate again but manages to tuck it under his arm with some long-limbed grace.

"I think you locked her out last night," Kazumi says, "So we're gonna make sure we don't bother her now, alright?"

Masaru bobs his head, lips pressed in a slight pout. "Alright."

It takes only a little while longer before Shokichi and Shuya appear out of the fields. Their pace escalates when each notices the other and the spirit of competition seems to grab them by the ankles. Shokichi has a bag of flour held tight to his chest, and Shuya has one blanket tucked under each arm.

"My money's on Shokichi," Masaru says, bringing up his spare hand to shield his eyes.

Kazumi leans forward, bending his knees just slightly. "Shouldn't underestimate Shuya just 'cause his legs aren't as young."

Kazumi knows he's on the money when something sends Shokichi stumbling. Luckily, neither the man nor the flour bag goes tumbling. Still, it gives Shuya a bit of a lead the footrace. Kazumi shoots Masaru a half-smile. When the two of them arrive, they're wholly out of breath. Shokichi extends the bag of flour to Kazumi, who takes it, so he can put his hands on his knees, breathing hard.

Kazumi sets the bag of flour on the ground gently. "We don't need this anymore, actually."

Shokichi looks at him and manages to get out a "Wha?" of disbelief.

Kazumi shrugs. "I was gonna use it to see if mama cat was really just avoiding us, but I ran into her a little while ago. I appreciate you locking up 'round here, but leave this one open for now, would ya?"

Shuya looks somewhat relieved. He holds up the blankets. "We still need these?"

"Yeah," Kazumi tilts his head in Masaru's direction, "Bring that over here."

Masaru sets the crate on the ground.

"Alright, Shuya, pass me one of those," says Kazumi. Once Shuya obliges, Kazumi takes the fabric and folds it in thirds so it lines the bottom of the apple crate. He gestures for the second blanket, and Shuya hands that one over, too. This one Kazumi spreads across the bottom at its full length, tucking the excess into the gap between the slats in the middle of the crate and folding the piece on the open side underneath the first blanket. Finished, the crate is completely padded on the bottom and partway up the sides. It makes a good nest, at least to Kazumi's eyes.

"Good I grabbed that second blanket, huh?" Shuya seems to puff up a little with pride.

Kazumi puts a hand on his shoulder. "Sure is. Let's go see if they're done with breakfast." He gestures to the barn door.

The four of them make their way inside, Kazumi at the head of the group. Masaru has taken custody of the crate again, now holding it with both hands. The barn cat is still attending to her babies, but at more of a distance now. She twitches her ears at the sight of human intrusion, her fluffy tail starting a pendulum swing of recognizable apprehension.

Kazumi motions for Masaru to set the box down a little ways from her. The cat gets to her feet with some semblance of reluctance and approaches the box, sniffing every corner as well as the blankets. She rubs the side of her head against one of the open slats, seeming to signify her acceptance of the offering, but doesn't climb inside the box.

"Ok," Shokichi peering around from behind Kazumi, nudges his elbow. "Now what?" He loops his arms around Kazumi's.

Before Kazumi has a chance to answer, Shuya appears at his other side. "Do we still get to name them even though mom came back?"

Masaru, who was before pulling up the rear of their little gaggle, moves forward close enough to lean his chin on Kazumi's shoulder and grunts his agreement with Shuya.

Kazumi thinks of the state of the fields, of the dread that persists when the soil isn't soaking in sunlight. But even more present is the warmth of the three bodies around him, the expectation that still sits on his shoulders.

"You can still name 'em," Kazumi says. He quiets an outburst of cheers before continuing. "But they gotta be shitty names."

A hush descends upon the barn. The mother cat has set up shop directly to the left of the box and watches the four of them, tail still swinging.

"Shitty names?" Kazumi can feel the vibrations of Masaru's voice in his shoulder as he speaks.

"Yeah," Kazumi hasn't exactly thought this through, but what does it matter, "Like dirt or... beef."

Shokichi makes a poor attempt at stifling laughter. "Beef?"

Shuya scratches at his beard. "Does 'dog' count as a shitty name?"

Their current arrangement makes it difficult to shrug, but Kazumi makes his best effort nonetheless. "You're the ones who wanted to name them."

Masaru loops one arm over Kazumi's other shoulder then takes his free hand and moves it so all four of them can see him count on his fingers. "Dirt, Beef, Dog... We need one more."

Silence again. The four of them stand in silent contemplation, stuck on one last shitty name.

Without any warning, Shokichi pulls so hard on Kazumi's arm that he nearly sends all four of them tumbling to the ground in a great big chain reaction of stupid. Still, enthusiasm undampened, he points with a passion to the mother cat. "Can't we call one 'baby?'" He asks.

"Why the hell not?" Kazumi can't help but smile a little, "Dirt, Beef, Dog, and Baby. Never heard cat names shittier."

The mother cat, with eyes half-lidded, seems to agree with his assessment.

"Alright, you three," Kazumi addresses each of the men with some indication of physical affection, a shoulder squeeze here, a pat on the back there, "Let's get some work done before we waste the whole damn day."

A resounding agreement sounds out within the barn.

It's fully light out once the four of them make their way out of the barn. Somehow, Kazumi doesn't mind as much as he probably should. Not that they could exactly afford to have more feline diversions. But the unspoken warmth that had permeated the morning made the expense more than worth it. The four of them remained bundled together, a boxed set, as long as they could manage before their respective tasks insisted they part ways. It wasn't like they wouldn't see one another again soon, anyway.

“You know, Boss,” one of the three says, and it doesn’t particularly matter who, because they all seem to have been thinking it, “I never thought you were a cat person.”

 

***  
_[epilogue]_

 

The kittens, somehow, had made their way into Kazumi's morning routine.

He still did the usual prepping stored meat or crating produce, checking the fields, cleaning, but there were new tasks now: a bowl of scraps and fresh water for their thriving family, sometimes swapping the blankets in the crate that their cat mother had finally decided to take up residence in. They were getting big, the kittens, though their names had proved not at all prophetic and had somehow stuck. Baby, as it turns out, was the biggest. He had a coat of black fur with a bowtie patch of white, and he liked to attack the laces on Kazumi's boots. Beef usually stayed close to her mother, while Dirt and Dog were an inseparable pair of sneaky troublemakers. The empty barn felt fuller with their company.  
They were only half of it, though -- Shokichi, Masaru, and Shuya had stepped up to help out. Now Kazumi didn't tend to wake up alone, and instead of rolling out of bed just to wander the dirt he'd get up even early to cook plates of eggs and toast, brew coffee for a warm farmhouse. Not that there wasn't still the quiet. Things still finished up more quickly with more hands on deck.

They did this particular morning, too. Kazumi had finished rounds but he and his boys had skipped breakfast. No food and no coffee had left him lounging with an uncharacteristically lazy intent in the hay, letting the kittens crawl in and out of his lap. Even Beef, shy as she was, had trotted over, bumper car tail straight up in the air. Kazumi gave her a good scratch on the underside of her chin before she made a retreat to fight with her mother's tail. It suits him just fine, given the sudden heaviness of his eyelids.

Like before, he promises the nap will only be for a minute. Though he has a feeling that might be wishful thinking. He drifts off, head filled with hay.

When Kazumi does manage to crack his eyes open, it's to a feeling of sudden coziness and a blanket. He also realizes that both his arms have fallen asleep, due to the fact that Shokichi is curled up on top of one, and Masaru is leaning against the other. Shuya is across the way with his arms folded, looking as if he could be meditating but snoring with a volume that declares he isn't. Shuya has a blanket, too, so Kazumi is pretty sure he's the one who brought them. Admittedly, Kazumi doesn't feel a whole lot like moving.

 

 

The morning can wait.

**Author's Note:**

> hey there!  
> thank you for letting me write kazumi, he is more of a delight than i ever anticipated and i'd definitely enjoy working on more fic that includes him.  
> also, yay! the three crows have character tags now!  
> i wanted to make sure the first thing in their new tag was something nice, so i leaned hard into the softness angle. 
> 
> also, would highly recommend looking up those veterinary lists of "worst pet names." however, the ones featured in this fic are all my own !


End file.
